Bravo Vs Gracie 2

With all the reviews and follow on from Metamoris 3 one of our guys, Andy Whitelam, asked me to do a ‘Currie Breakdown’ of the Bravo v Gracie match. This is not an depth review, there's guys who can do than better than me so it won't be too technical but it's the key points as I remember it.

Most of my observations are focussed on Eddie for 2 reasons; I must admit to being a bit of a fan of Eddie and having trained with him a bunch of times I understand his game a little. Secondly I don’t really think Royler did that much to review apart from hold on and not get submitted.

Side note; may just be me but I think a few of the Gracies on the Metamoris shows have tried to just not lose rather than win. Royler, Clark against Rafa, Roger against Buchecha and maybe even Ryron against Galvao….maybe.

I read a conspiracy theory that the Gracie Brothers are feeding their “sport” relations to world class competitors to show that the “sport” is not as effective as the “art” saying that the purpose of sport is to win but the purpose of the art is to survive. Ryron surviving against a bigger, stronger opponent shows how “effective” their system is. And their student Schuass drew with Cyborg. The Gracie infomercial of getting beasted while viewing as success rolls on.

Back to Metamoris 3 and the much awaited re-match starts as Eddie shoots a vicious double leg……….

Ok, time for real review;

This is quite possibly the most important match that these 2 will ever compete in; Royler to prove that Eddie’s previous win was a fluke and Eddie to prove that his system is legit. What followed was almost like a 10^th Planet instructional.

Eddie pulls quarter guard right off the bat and immediately kills Royler’s angle for the knee cut pass that is probably his most formidable weapon. The quarter guard is a non-loadbearing guard, you are not carrying your opponent’s weight so you can keep it for a long time if you require, that allows you a lot of movement and gives you the option to bail quickly if you need to and is one of my favourite guards. Eddie has a ridiculous ‘squeeze’ in his legs so knew Royler would have a tough time passing. [I’ve been in his half guard and it is tight]

Eddie works very patiently while Royler tries to pour on the pressure; Royler can’t seem to progress the position as Eddie is being very patient, a trait he has shown in all his matches, he’s not going to move unless he has his grips absolutely locked in.

The first 6 minutes or so are just jockeying for position, trying to establish grips, trying to get a slight advantage over the other before launching their attack. I’m kind of surprised that Royler is trying the same thing whilst getting nowhere; I thought he might have switched his pass by now unless maybe he can’t or thought it was working. It’s different when you are in the moment rather than detached and watching.

So, the most crucial point of the match occurs at around 13:40 on the clock, Eddie gets the grips he requires and switches to lockdown so you know he is now set to hit his sweep.

At roughly 13:05 a big mistake from Royler as he pulls out his overhook allowing Eddie to rotate his legs that is key to the Electric Chair (a mistake made sometimes with Electric Chair is people try to use the arms to pull the leg into position but it’s all in the legs) Once this sweep is set it is pretty unstoppable, best you can hope for is a re-roll but that wasn’t happening this time.

Eddie tests Royler’s flexibility until 12:30ish but what looks like Royler rolling him back, to me is Eddie rolling back to better secure position before going fully to top. [I remember Eddie saying on more than one occasion to test their flexibility]

By keeping the lockdown even whilst on top it becomes a very strong position, it’s kind of like having a half mount with grapevines. It is also a very strong position to pass from as one of your legs has passed already and makes a barrier for the other one to pass which is achieved at 11:50ish.

Royler for some reason is making hand gestures, don’t know if he is trying a little ‘sportsmanship’ or is frustrated.

Eddie using the wrestlers cradle and cross face really well so when he starts to switch to north/south Royler recognises the escape route and fall into yet another trap.

[This was something Eddie taught us, to create a ton of pressure then release it in one place thus providing the only means of escape so you have to go that way and of course they have let you do this so you have usually escaped into something worse. My coach, Chris Haueter, is a master of this]

As Royler takes the bait, Eddie rolls for the back but his hook is just a little too shallow. He still attacks the neck crank really well but his position seems a little off otherwise I believe he would have had the submission right there. The hook being too shallow is then evidenced at 10:20 as Royler managed to escape the attempted back take during the transition.

Royler gets back on top in Eddie’s half guard and attempts to do something that had not worked for him previously in the match, he doesn’t seem to know how to escape this position and is kind of lost.

Eddie now knows his way to win and immediately looks to utilise lockdown again.

8:00 to go and Eddie hits the Electric Chair again and holds position for a while, Royler looks to roll Eddie and get back on top, Eddie doesn’t seem to fight this too hard, maybe saving his energy for his final attack, maybe a little fatigued or setting up something else..

5:55 another Electric Chair from same set up but not quite settled, again Royler rolls to top but Eddie resets and Electric Chair’s to top again. 5:30 to 5:15ish you see Eddie start to look to Royler’s feet, giving a glimpse of him looking to finish now.

Referee stops the match to reset in the middle, there’s some Gracie drama (isn’t there always) but after protests and a picture is provided the referee resets them in the correct position. This is probably the last bit of motivation that Eddie needs, he knows Royler has no idea of how to beat him and trying to ‘improve’ your position in the reset seems a little weak. [Apparently one of the other Gracies shouted at the referee from the side-lines to “stand them back up” for the restart}

Referee is having none of it, stays strong and restarts from the correct position [I guess he’s out of Metamoris 4]

Eddie had the Electric Chair position but got rid of the leg so he has some kind of lockdown/rewind the hips/leg drag/stoner control position. I’ve seen him hit arm triangles and twisters from here so looks to be a good strong finishing position but you saw his intentions just before the restart.

As Eddie continues to work the lockdown, I swear I saw Royler tap, Glover said he saw it too but thought he must be tripping, think I’m tripping too.

Royler starts pushing Eddie’s face away or looks like Eddie is being pushed away but at 3:58 he uses that momentum to reach down for the foot and roll.

Eddie looking to finalise his ‘Vaporiser’ which is not just a calf crank but a calf crank with a twisting foot lock too. At 2:26 you can just about see Eddie’s right hand pushing down Royler’s foot creating a calf cranking, toe holding, foot locking bag of pain [I know, he showed me then Helen did it to me too and it hurts like hell] Royler must be tough as hell to not tap because it looks on or maybe he has the mentality that he doesn’t care if it busts something as long as he doesn’t lose.

From 1:15, looks like Eddie is going for a modified heel hook, same again at 0:40 and time “runs out” or should it?

0:00 Metamoris guys stop the match even though it said in the rules that if one guy has a near submission they will let time continue until the submission is finalised or the opponent escapes.

Guess it wasn't close enough.

11 years in the making and within 20 minutes it’s all over.

My Conclusion

Eddie performed better on the night, he had a plan and stuck to it, taking his opportunities at the right time.

Royler was never in the game, he seemed totally unprepared for Eddie’s ½ guard game which is the foundation of 10^th Planet Jiu Jitsu. In fact it seemed as though he had never seen Eddie Bravo grapple before. Maybe the Gracie camp didn’t expect ½ guard and there isn’t much about Eddie on the internet either…….

Eddie told us something along the lines of “don’t even think about rubber guard until you ½ guard game is down”

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but if I personally was involved in Royler’s camp, I would have specifically looked at a couple of things.

*Watch the roll Eddie had with Marcelo, see how Marcelo handles distance and angles

*Read any of Eddie’s books or watch any of his speeches, he pretty much gives away the basis of his system

*Look at this picture on Eddie’s FB page. There is Eddie, a guy who says his entire system is built on a good ½ guard, training with ½ guard master JJ Machado and ½ guard pioneer Gordo.

But now the dust has settled, life is back to normal and nothing has changed. Maybe Eddie gets a more students, keeps his legacy intact and cements his undeniable place in history. The Gracies already have their legacy and place in history. Both will continue to have the nut-huggers and the haters.
Someone on the net called it the greatest match in the history of Jiu Jitsu, give me a break, it wasn’t even the best match that night, performance of the night for me was Gui Mendes, he absolutely killed it.

If you think this Metamoris was hyped, wait until they tempt Marcelo out of retirement!

DC

Death Touch Paralysis Arm Bars

I have been studying new ways to apply the basic arm bar and delved into the world of meridian lines and pressure points.

After years of detailed research, mainly hidden away in a cave, I found that at the junction of meridians I8U and 4Q2 there lies a spot that causes immediate paralysis and causes the arms to stiffen.

Once I have activated this I set up the regular arm bar.

I tricked Ryan "Jiu Jitsu Turtle" Hunter into sparring with me, he wishes he hadn't now. I hope he gets well soon.

I then got to thinking that if it works on arms maybe I could go double tap and incorporate the legs too. The results are amazing.

Here's the proof.

You just saw the results, results don't lie. We will be adding this into our syllabus right away so get practicing. We will be adding a 5th stripe to belts for anyone who masters this.

I thought about challenging people to a match or compete or something but I believe this is too deadly, what's point having a gold medal when you're looking at a 20 stretch?

Practice wisely young grasshoppers.

Darren "Death Touch" Currie

The meaning of the Combat Base UK logo

I was reading a post about someone designing a logo for a BJJ group and I'm not sure I ever explained fully how I came about designing our most coolest of logos.

First thing I wanted to avoid was the triangle, a much used symbol in BJJ, I had a theory about it being a pyramid rather than a triangle as in 'pyramid scheme' but that's for another day.

I wanted a logo that would mean something, if we are going to do this, we are going to do it right.

It started with the skull and crossbones which is a cool looking symbol in itself but my skull and crossbones is not pirate related although one of my ancestors was a privateer. It starts with the Templar Knights who were often used to transport important people safely on a long journey.

Relate this to BJJ, we want to help you on your long journey, help you avoid the bandits and pitfalls along the way.

Although the origin of the skull and crossbones in Templar history is pretty sick but basically a Templar Knight, a Lord Of Sidon, was ordered to return to his wife's grave at a certain time.

"at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him ‘guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things’ and so he carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head"

I have tried to defeat people in competition just by showing them the logo but they still tried to rip my arms off but then again I'm no Templar.

I like to think that our group is 'the giver of good things' though.

I then added the Ace Of Spades. This is a direct reference to Chris Haueter who had an
Ace Of Spades patch on the sleeve of his gi when I first met him. This was his iconic gi that served as the template for the first Lucky Gi but that is another story in itself.

You can see this evidenced by the Ace Of Spades embroidery of the Lucky Gi sleeve.

I, of course, added our team name above it then added the 'Technical Laboratories' below it as another direct reference to Haueter, this was a phrase he always used and always inspired me to go the 'laboratory' to experiment with my own jiu jitsu.

So there you go, more history of Combat Base.

Hope you liked it.

Lord Darren Of Pomfret and Protecting Genius

happy anniversary to me part four

What was seemingly becoming a trait, we kind of lost touch with SBG but not before I met Leo Kirby, we kind of hit it off right away, I guess being the same age group we had that old man cynicism.

Leo had started training with Marcelo after he had persuaded Marcelo to move to Florida. At one point there was just Marcelo, Leo and 2 other guys training in his garage and Leo was getting a lot of information. He would email me daily with new techniques, ideas and Marcelo's philosophy on everything. I learned so much from that correspondence, most of the emails I have kept to this day. I even added "Leo's Page" to the old www.combatsport.co.uk website, I don't know if anyone saw it but he laid out Marcelo's game totally complete with links to matches to fortify what was being taught. That in itself was a great resource, I wonder how many people actually saw it?

I have since had the pleasure of going to Florida to stay at Leo's, teach a couple of classes and train a little. This is another one of those occasions where I have made a friend for life through Jiu Jitsu.

Up to this point, this had been a very satisfying period for me and yet one that can never be repeated. There is so much BJJ now in the UK that no one will have to go what we went through and because of that I am sad for you.

These days it is easy to get access to great coaches, the group is full of them, YouTube and torrent sites[1] fill in any knowledge gaps but when there were just guys like Helen, Muckle, Spenna, Danny and Ryan[2] with us trying to work things out, that was real fun. I don’t understand some people’s rush to get through belts because they really are missing the point.

Life was really good; we had more and more guys getting graded, competing and winning. We had guys competing in BJJ, submission wrestling, all levels of MMA, Judo and Sombo; just about anything you could compete in. We were having a great time; we had more and more guys wanting to affiliate so we continued to grow to what we have now.

So here we stand, 7 black belts so far with plenty more on the way including the 1^st female in the UK, something the big G can never take from us. We have the structure to keep providing opportunities for our students. We have mma, gi and no gi champions with guys that have competed from every level from local interclub to Mundials and everything in between. All this has been achieved without having to sell our soul to a franchise, this has been hard work from everyone involved and for that I am very proud.

Knowing that I also have Haueter there to call on too if I need any advice, which I often do. He has helped me a lot with the various problems you encounter along the way. 

I have been fortunate to travel, train and teach in a bunch of different places, home and abroad, have met some truly wonderful people and had some great experiences through Jiu Jitsu. So this gives me the inspiration to try to help others.

I am so pround that as a group we have raised thousands of pounds for charities, really giving back to the community that so many just take from.

For ourselves, our legacy is we are providing a friendly yet competitive environment for anyone to improve their lives through improved fitness, confidence, social skills and of course defensive skills.

Forget medals and titles, anyone who enhances their real life through Jiu Jitsu is a champion.

The future? Will report on that after the next 20 years or in a separate blog post.

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[1] Neither Combat Base nor its representatives advocate the use of any illegally downloaded material regardless of how useful it may be, even if the originals are really expensive.

[2] Helen Currie, Steve Muckle, Mark Spencer, Danny Mitchell and Ryan Hunter

Happy anniversary to me part three

BJJ tourneys were not yet to hit the UK so we dived into competing in Ju Jutsu Kumite[1] that had been started by a group called NJJKC under the guidance of a guy called Ross Iannocarro. Ross was an exceptional martial artist and all round good guy; he really helped us a lot. IIRC he also turned down using the Gracie name, he wanted to strengthen his own reputation, not piggy back on someone else’s.

Anything that had even the slightest bit of grappling especially Judo and Ju Jutsu Kumite

We had trained every chance we could, gone to countless seminars, competed in whatever had any kind of grappling in it and generally just dedicated so much time to Jiu Jitsu then at a seminar with Haueter (I think 2000 but not 100% sure) we were rolling when he asked “has anyone promoted you before? Even one stripe” I said no, he was my professor now and I was waiting for him. So he promoted me to blue belt and to make things even better, Helen was promoted too.

We then threw ourselves more into training than ever; did loads of seminars, had guys come to our gym to put on classes and listen to their stories and yet they seemed bound. We were offered affiliation to the big franchises[2] but it just didn’t appeal joining someone else, the franchises were really controlling but Haueter’s Jiu Jitsu was free. I wasn’t bothered about success by association so we decided we would start our own team; especially as the relationship and opportunity to train with Andy was diminishing.

So, we had trained traditional Ju Jutsu, Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, we had been graded in all of them; we had done the NJJKC coaching courses and competed so now seemed a great time to start our own group.

We formed San Gokui, a Japanese phrase meaning “three principles” we used this name in part as a sign of respect to the Japanese martial arts we had been recently practicing but also I liked the appeal of the 3 principles, these been mind, body and spirit.

Notice Ryan Hunter on the fight card?

Due to a “miscommunication” we missed the chance to train with Chris Haueter for a year or so but that gap was filled in part by Matt Thornton, the tallest guy ever, president of SBG and one of Haueter’s brown belts at the time, Matt insisted on us doing no gi too,something I wasn't bothered about at the time but see the value of it now.

Matt was getting some recognition for questioning some of the more traditional martial arts, Jeet Kune Do especially, which the concept of Aliveness. I loved how he broke things down into very simple terms and taught concepts as well as techniques; he had a very straightforward approach that cut through a lot of the crap that some guys were still suffering.

Matt became a regular visitor to the UK bringing with him other talented martial artists too, John Frankl to name but one.

John showed me a couple of half guard things that revolutionised my half guard game that I still do to this day.

I also remember him arm dragging before it was a part of everyone’s arsenal.

As we concentrated on just straight BJJ we founded Combat Base; even though Combat Base was founded by Helen and myself, it gives a healthy shout out to Chris Haueter as he is credited with naming that particular position. It all seemed very apt as we about to move into our first real academy, a base from which to practice combat.

I then achieved some novelty value. I had 2 students promoted above me. I was the coach and a blue belt at the time when I had my future wife Helen and Pete Guest promoted to purple belt. I had people all over saying what a brilliant coach I was because I had taught some students to be higher grades than me. The novelty value is I had never met these guys that knew I was such a good coach!!

I also got a phone call from someone asking who would be taking the classes now I wasn't the highest grade!! Seriously.

One of my proudest days came after training one Saturday when Steve Muckle (who had travelled from Northumberland every weekend for 3 years to train, compete and attend seminars) told me he was officially going to open his own club and wanted to use the Combat Base name. Wow, I was kind of taken aback but very flattered too that he wanted to use our name.

I agreed of course so he let me out of his side control, at one point I had my emails routed there Darren@understevemucklessidecontrol.co.uk.

Many years later and feeling very emotional I was so proud to present him with a black belt after he had been promoted by Helen/Haueter, Steve really deserved this belt, he is the guy who really didn’t know when to quit.

More soon......................

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[1] A competitive format that allowed controlled striking, takedowns and submissions, competitors wore gis

[2] Franchises, like Subway but for BJJ, the big associations that kindly allow you to use their name and all they ask in return is a pile of £s every year.

Happy anniversary to me part two

Fast forward to October 1997 that we first got to train with real Brazilians and they were real Gracies too! They were Carley and Carlion, 2 of the 21 children from Carlos Gracie Snr, these 2 guys were really close to the actual source of pure Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. First session was ok but a little fussy and totally was not what I thought it would be.

Late 1997, I got a phone call out of the blue from a guy called Andy Norman, I had never met him before but he got my phone number from the local library[1] as I had a poster there advertising my Taekwondo classes. I had a good long conversation with Andy who seemed like a really cool guy. He had just been training in LA at the Machado Academy and met a guy called Chris Haueter who was now coming to UK to do a seminar. I had never heard of a ‘Chris Haueter’ before and as this was pre-general internet days I couldn’t just google him[2]

Side note – Haueter would mainly be doing seminars at Jeet Kune Do schools as he was a certified JKD instructor from Dan Inosanto himself and a lot of the JKD guys had an affinity with the Machados, probably as Dan had started training there himself.

We went to the first seminar with Chris and boom, totally blown away, the guy was awesome. His Jiu Jitsu was nothing like the Gracie stuff we had done and so I was hooked. Chris iron-manned[3] everyone that was there no matter how big they were, no matter what style they were or what grade.

I had to be able to do that, I wanted to be able to do iron-man like that all from a guy that I had never heard of up until that point. If someone had asked me about the ‘dirty dozen’ at that point I would have known Charles Bronson and James Coburn but would have struggled to name the rest.

I was always taught that if you sit back and wait for things to happen, they won’t. Not true, I got a phone call out of the blue from someone I never met to train with someone I never heard of that turned out to be life changing. Luck? Fate? Doesn’t matter, the fact it did happen is more important than how it happened!! Then got the opportunity to train with Royce Gracie, the man who inspired us to train; the guy with the brass balls performances in the early UFCs. Couldn’t wait.

Disappointed is not the word, actually it is the word. He was the opposite of Haueter; didn’t like his teaching style, was very stand offish and had zero personality. I told myself he was just having a bad day, jet lagged or something, I would give him another chance one day which I did and same result.

I would just continue to train with our own guys, Andy Norman and train with Chris Haueter when he was in UK. For now Professors Trial and Error would be my main teachers.

1999 brought my first meeting with Marco Ruas, a totally world class fighter who had won UFC 7 with great performances of striking and grappling and is considered one of the first guys to be that well rounded. I had also seen a grainy tape of Marco fighting the Gracies top fighter Pinduka. The fight was scored a draw (ha,ha) earning Marco and Luta Livre[4] a ton of respect. This became my introduction to no gi, proper leg locks and anti-Jiu Jitsu techniques. Marco is still one of my favourite guys that I met in martial arts; he gave us quite a bit of time and did some photos with him for Combat Magazine.

He once showed me a kimura/head scissors combo and I was so stuck all I could move was my eyelids, I tapped but not sure what to, everything below my eye line hurt.

I have always kept in mind his anti-Jiu Jitsu and practiced my leg locks diligently, some would say to the detriment of my guard passing but whatever, it’s all about the journey. Anyway I would rather have 1 arm lock and 1 leg lock than 2 arm locks.

To be continued..........................

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[1] Before Facebook and internet advertising, we had to put up posters to advertise. Posters were like paper things with photos and writing on.

[2] Remember it was before internet time, instead of reading other people’s opinions about something you would have to try something yourself or meet someone yourself and make up your own mind.

[3] Iron man is not just Robert Downey Jr but a term used in Jiu JItsu when someone grapples a whole bunch of people one after the other with no rest inbetween.

[4] Luta Livre was the nemesis of BJJ

Happy anniversary to me part one

It was 20 years ago this very month that I first saw the UFC. I had read about UFC 1 in an American martial arts magazine but it wasn’t released on video to start with over here so when I got the video for UFC 2 I couldn’t wait to see it.

At the time I was running a successful Taekwondo school and personally I was also training a little Hapkido, kickboxing and dabbling in a very little known Korean martial art that looked like JKD and had some weapon work in there too.

Basically I had my own all round fighting style; strikes, takedowns, joint locks and sticks too.

So UFC 2, enter Pat Smith the Taekwondoing, Hapkidoing, kickboxing guy, I obviously wanted him to win so it would validate my choice of martial arts and prove I was on the right track. He started really well, 2 guillotines and elbowing a ninja to death put him into the finals against this Gracie guy. This is what I really wanted to see. We all know how that turned out!

So now, of course, I had to learn grappling. I started Judo and traditional Jiu Jitsu for a start then managed to acquire some back up video tapes[1] of actual fights and instructionals coming out of Brazil and so it began. 

At this point the internet[2] was not yet in full effect, so videos and snail mail was all we had.

Used to love the postman turning up with my videos, I had a load of footage of vale tudo fights in Brazil, loads of gi matches and the Renzo/Kukuk instructionals that had actual fight footage on showing how the techniques being taught really worked. I got some Kazeka Muniz tapes too and even though he was regarded as a fraud I thought his techniques were pretty good.

A bunch of us would stay behind after class and just beat the crap out of each other, we didn’t really know how to train but was a lot of fun.

So we muddled along trying to piece everything together in the constantly changing jigsaw that was Jiu Jitsu, at the time a lot of the stuff we were doing was a vale tudo[3] nature and involved striking, takedowns and nasty submissions. Professors Trial and Error were always there to offer their thoughts.

It had to be noted as well at this point that we had no mats. We were renting a church hall and after going through their cupboards we found an old carpet that we thought would be great for training on. All takedowns were done onto a crappy old carpet laid on a solid wood floor. For one of my fights I had Chris Eastwood throwing leg kicks at me so I could practice takedowns against kicking. Every time he kicked my thigh I clinched and took him down onto the carpet, this was a live drill so by the end of it we were both battered.

To add to the confusion I then got a copy of the inaugural Mundials in 1996, I couldn’t wait to see all the top competitors fight. Didn’t realise at the time that I was watching Sperry, Gurgel, Liborio and Roleta. I remember being totally confused when I saw Royler (I think) hold side control then just stand up and start celebrating like crazy. I rewound the tape and couldn’t see how he had won. I watched it 10 times and saw no submission so what the hell happened?

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you “points”. This was to be my introduction to ‘sport’ Jiu Jitsu, time limits and points. Wow, a whole other side of Jiu Jitsu just opened up to me.

To be continued.........................

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[1] Video tapes were kind of a black tape thing on which to record images

[2] Yes children, there was life before the internet

[3] Vale tudo, sometimes called no holds barred, was the fore runner to mma and allowed just about anything

Kimura Crucifix Armbar

Maximising Your Training Time

 

When I was preparing to compete, no matter what the style was, I hit nerd-mode full on and felt that I had to absolutely maximise my training time working on my ‘A’ game and the peripherals that put me back into my ‘A’ game.

As a lot of my coaching, projecting and planning training came from a business environment, I call the ‘A’ game the critical path. The shortest route from A to win.

In this example, we are looking to establish our ‘A’ game of takedown, pass guard, secure side control, kimura submission represented by 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively, shown as a red line in the photo.

This is our critical path.

As things rarely go to plan we now have the green line representing our plan B that will put us back onto our critical path.

So the actual match may go;

1.    You get your takedown but end up in a scramble

1a.  You quickly have to get back on top
2.    Pass guard
2a.  While securing side control you get put in ½ guard
3.    You pass half guard and secure side control
4.    You finalise the kimura submission
 
You have kept to the critical path where you could and everything else was designed to put you back on track.

This is a useful training tool so you can immediately identify where you need most work; at what part do you fall off the critical path?

• Identify the weakness
• Drill the solution
• Introduce back into the path
• Repeat as necessary.

This is not just for competitors but for the hobbyist too that has limited time; pick what you can do reasonably well, work that to death and add bits when you can. If you are doing 1 or 2 classes a week, trying to learn everything is too much and not conducive to actually having an ‘A’ game.

 

DC

Learning Jiu Jitsu

So, you are learning Jiu Jitsu. Good for you. Let's start with something simple to make your journey easier. You don't know everything, you never will and you will never need to. It will always evolve so providing never ending study.

When we come to start learning something new, most of us still hold onto what we know and this kind of acts as our filter. How many times will a Jiu Jitsu instructor have heard "I would just do this" or "I was taught this way" or something similar. The students are figuring "well, it got me this far, why would I change to think about things a different way?"

This is why it is probably easier to teach someone from scratch than someone with a little knowledge or someone who has trained a different style before because as the old saying goes "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" As instructors it is our duty to listen to alternatives but it is also the responsibility of the student to listen to alternatives too.

Equate this to starting school and the first few times you were taught maths, for example, how confusing things were. "How can 1 + 3 = 4 when yesterday you said 2 + 2 = 4" and so on.

When you realise that you don't have to remember every outcome but just learn the basic structure and formulas things become much easier.

How does this relate to learning jiu jitsu I hear you ask?

Let's use passing guard as an example, how many times have you heard "how do you kill spider guard" or "how do I pass butterfly guard" what they are asking for is specific outcomes, resulting in people thinking that is the way to do it. Remember 1 + 3 = 4 just as much as 2 + 2 = 4.

It is easy for the instructor to give specific answers to specific problems but ultimately may not be in the best interest of the student, it's the "give the man a fish"scenario.

So to answer any "how do you.........." question rather than give a specific answer, try to provide the structure and formula so the student can work through it to get their own answer. In the example of spider guard, the formula may be "remove or re-direct what is controlling your arm then look to move around anything that is blocking your forward movement" etc.

You have to give the student what you think they need not what they think they want.

In John Whitmore's awesome Coaching For Performance book, the ultimate aim of the coach is to make the person being coached accept responsibility for their own actions. You don't get this by spoonfeeding them.

This was used very successfully in the development of Apple, the powers that be decided what people need not what they want. To loosely quote Henry Ford on producing his first car "if I'd have asked people what they wanted at that time they probably would have said a faster horse"

Once you have the structure and the formula you can create your own results.

Darren